This Heartbreaking Tumblr Reveals the Final Exchanges Between Loved Ones

Get your tissues ready.

By now, we’re all aware that online anonymity is as present as ever with apps like Whisper, Secret and Yik Yak virtually available to anyone. However, before these took off, a lot of the online community took to the original place where secrecy was (and still is) always welcomed — Tumblr. During the last few weeks, a Tumblr page titled The Last Message Received brought people together who can’t stop thinking about the final messages they received from loved ones. Unsurprisingly, many of the submissions made to The Last Message Received involve heartbreak, terminated friendships, and even the final words of deceased lovers, friends, or relatives.

The mastermind behind the account is 15-year-old Emily Trunko, and this isn’t her first online project. According to the New York Times, The Last Message Received is the successor of her first Tumblr page titled Dear My Blank. Dear My Blank allows people to submit anonymous letters that they never intend on actually sending to recipients. Both of Emily’s Tumblr projects have grown to be hugely successful, and garner thousands of submissions for similar reasons — they allow people to explore emotions that are triggered by loss.

Emily launched The Last Message Received early last month, and believes that the steadily approaching holiday season has played a huge role in having her audience open up online. “A lot of people are getting more sentimental and thinking more about family and interacting with loved ones. I think Last Message Received can hit home with them,” she told the New York Times.

The project is here to remind us that we can, in fact, lose the people we frequently engage in conversations with. Emily also spoke with BuzzFeed and shared that this is actually what she’s learned from starting The Last Message Received. “Every message I send to them could be the last one I ever exchange, and every message I receive could be the last one I receive,” she said.

For many different reasons, the screenshots on The Last Message Received had to be hard on those willing to have them published. Reading them can trigger a range of emotions, serve as closure with one final read, or even leave one filled with regret on what they did or didn’t get to say. One thing is for sure, it’s moving to see that other people have been through similar situations, and let’s face it, we’ve all received messages that we can’t stop thinking about.